Last Sunday Paula Deen was able to carve out a brief moment of joy, celebrating the christening of her stepdaughter's baby girl near the Savannah home she shares with husband Michael Groover.

"The subject of the sermon was stand strong. She felt like it was a message," says a source close to the family. During the service, "when Paula went to pray with the minister, he said, 'We're behind you,'" adds a Deen pal. "She got emotional."

Based on an earlier Forbes story published Thursday morning, PEOPLE reported Deen had been dropped from the Novo Nordisk deal that caused a stir last year when she announced that she had ben living with Type 2 diabetes for three years – but a spokesperson for the global healthcare company says that simply isn't true.

"It's too early to suggest what we will wind up doing but we have not dropped Paula Deen," the spokesperson said. "We just felt the recent controversy affected her ability to help manage and work towards our mission which is around changing diabetes. It's unclear what effect this controversy will have on users of the diabetes drug."

Paula Deen's sons Bobby and Jamie have leaped to their mother's defense in her racial-slur scandal, saying she's a good person who's being unjustly maligned.

"That word, that horrifying, terrible word that exists and I abhor it coming from any person ... we weren't raised in a home where that word was used," Bobby Deen told CNN's New Day program on Tuesday – referring to the N-word, which Paula Deen has admitted in a legal deposition to having used in the past.

"Neither one of our parents ever taught us to be bigoted toward any other person for any reason," he added. "Our mother is one of the most compassionate, good-hearted, empathetic people that you'd ever meet. These accusations are very hurtful to her, and it's very sad."